Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sheet feeding apparatus for feeding sheets, and an image forming apparatus equipped with the same.
Description of the Related Art
In the prior art, there are some image forming apparatuses such as printers and copying machines equipped with a manual sheet-feeding apparatus for conveying irregular sized sheets or special material sheets, in addition to a sheet feeding apparatus for feeding regular sized sheets stored in a sheet feed cassette. According to such manual sheet feeding apparatus, for example, a sheet is stacked on a manual sheet-feeding tray disposed so that it can be opened and closed on a side surface of an image forming apparatus body, and the sheet is fed via a feeding roller.
When feeding a sheet through the manual sheet feeding apparatus, an user opens a cover having the manual sheet-feeding tray disposed on an inner surface and release the manual sheet-feeding tray stored in the image forming apparatus body (hereinafter referred to as apparatus body). When the manual sheet feeding apparatus is not used, the cover is closed, and the manual sheet-feeding tray is stored in the apparatus body. If the feed roller is arranged near the manual sheet-feeding tray with the aim to downsize the image forming apparatus, there is a possibility that the manual sheet-feeding tray and the feed roller may interfere with one another when storing the manual sheet-feeding tray.
Therefore, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2005-255316 provides a configuration where a link arm is provided between an apparatus body and a manual sheet-feeding tray. The manual sheet-feeding tray is moved above a feed roller via the link arm when the manual sheet-feeding tray is closed, so as to prevent increase in size of the image forming apparatus.
Recently, there are demands for an image forming apparatus that can be downsized without having the apparatus body and the manual sheet-feeding tray connected via a link arm.